Monday, February 29, 2016

15x11 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Bienfang paper drawn and painted from life today. My tulips are pink though so had to improvise and add other hues such as orange, yellow, and red.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Saunders Waterford paper done today. Since temps were in the 70s and sunshine plentiful it put me in the mood for being outside and seeing sunflowers or thinking of planting them later on in the year. I wanted to paint a high key, loose group of them using at least two pigments seldom or never used. So I chose thioindigo violet and vitruvius blue (combination of Lapis Lazuli and cerulean). The violet and blue together with a bit of alizarin crimson made very nice hues. Also I wanted to use only my 1" flat sable brush so too much detail could not be done. Towards the end I decided to put the flowers inside a glass vase.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

15x11 watercolor on Yupo synthetic paper done today. A white farmhouse sits beside clotheslines full of drying laundry in the warm sun. This is a crop from a larger photo that had additional buildings and other farm items, that I featured on a WetCanvas event. Who doesn't remember the fresh smell of line dried clothing or bedding.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Friday, February 26, 2016

22x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Arches, another chef painting from a 3D figurine that isn't real but I tried to make him realistic.
I used the back of a failed painting of a window with flowers.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Arches paper, the front of a French restaurant in Ruidoso New Mexico that is no longer in business. They had wonderful French cuisine and atmosphere and am sure lots of followers of this blog will remember its ambience and decor. I painted a demo of this place later.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Arches rough paper of mother and young donkey. The background is imaginary and I used two different photos of mine to come up with the composition. The mother is plodding along in the hot southwestern sun while her offspring, called a jenny, looks at the viewer. My paper choice lent itself to the stucco buildings and sandy dry dirt.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

15x11 mixed media on 140 lb cold press Canson paper (watercolor, India ink) done last week after receiving instructions on Sketchbook Skool in the Expressing series. Make a drawing on paper and trace that onto tracing paper. Color in the shape on paper with watercolor and let dry. Tape your traced line drawing on top. Lift up and add small lines or dots of India ink, then immediately lay the tracing paper down over the image and press with your fingers to transfer ink onto the watercolor image. A different look for sure and it was fun. My paper had been used as a backing sheet under larger pieces, hence all the little marks of paint. I had an old sketch so reversed it.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Monday, February 22, 2016

20x26 acrylic on paper with wax crayon drawing, an older work that is SOLD. I used the back of one of my cat's heads as he was sitting on the bed and here it might be the ocean. Smaller pieces might be goldfish or even whales.Image is COPYRIGHT Kay Smith.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

9x12 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Canson paper of two Brahman cows done today in a 2 hour timed weekend event online with WetCanvas. Host was Li Newton who shot this pair at a fair. We never raised this breed of cattle growing up but my husband's family did. I love their long floppy ears and almost goat-like faces and heads.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

5.5x8.5 watercolor on paper done last weekend, a group of fig fruit on a small platter dish. I used Bienfang sketchbook for mixed media; these figs were drawn in colored pencil first. A simple subject that does not have much color or pizzazz but a fun and cute one.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Friday, February 19, 2016

11x15 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Kilimanjaro paper finished today. Using one of my cactus prickly pear photos I isolated one area, drew it in pencil, then painted it using pastel pinks, yellows, sherbet oranges. Blooms were done in green shades, so all is opposite what you see in nature. Years ago I took the same photo and did a half sheet larger scene using same colors for a pleasing southwest art design.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

9x12 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done over the weekend which was part of a WetCanvas challenge. I challenged myself to paint a large sky using no references and a limited palette as seen here. Paints: Cadmium red and manganese blue on the sky. Foreground is quinacridone gold, green gold, UB, quin burnt orange.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

5.5x8.5 watercolor and ink on Masters sketchbook done yesterday. These are my pink coneflowers planted last year around the back patio. Butterflies love them and so do I. Since my other Masters book this size had been completed I was anxious to begin a new one and these lovely blooms singing a song were just the thing. Love how the paper takes watercolor and Pigma Micron 01 pen together.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

6x9 watercolor, acrylic, and ink on paper done a few days ago on our mountain trip. It is on a discarded book page and now most of the text is obliterated by paint. I had been photographing sea gulls again here in town; they fly over my office windows at work, too. This one sat perched on the concrete ledge of the roof as if waiting for a handout, the cheeky character. Since white gouache did not show up well on the paper I added white acrylic to bring out highlights. I really do like how this turned out using an unconventional support. Micron 01 pen used to sketch the bird.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

22x15 watercolor vignette on 140 lb cold press paper, an earlier work that is now SOLD. This white rooster was named Snowball and belonged to friends who allowed me to shoot photos of him strutting around their place.
Image COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2016.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

9x12 watercolor on Canson 140 lb cold press paper done this past weekend for one of WetCanvas forum events in Watermedia, hosted by BeeG. Her ref photo had more detail and a lot was cropped out including top half of shuttered windows in Toulouse, France.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Friday, February 12, 2016

15x11 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper, a redo from a year and a half ago, that was not working. Her eyes, nose and mouth were redrawn and repainted while broad warm washes of quinacridone gold added to her shirt and arm.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

11x15 watercolor of three goats huddled together, painted wet in wet on 140 lb cold press paper in a direct manner. I particularly like the cast shadows.This is one of my earlier works and it is SOLD.Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

22x15 watercolor completed today after two more hours on this work in progress (WIP) from yesterday. I really like how the multicolored gladiolus, bunched together in a single dark blue pot, are so vibrant and Spring-like. We can be inspired anyway until Spring really does happen. Paper is Italia acquerello 140 lb cold press sold by Dick Blick which is perfect for florals.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

22x15 watercolor of a pot of gladioli painted this far today as a work in progress (on the back of a really terrible sunflower piece). Glads always make me feel cheerful or glad; bottom half of the pot is cropped here in this iPhone photo. Stay tuned to see the rest.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith

Monday, February 8, 2016

9x10.25 watercolor and ink (Staedtler Calligraphic Duo pen) on paper sketched today from WetCanvas weekend drawing event hosted by Ros. Her family visited China so she had references from that country. These fat panda bears eating bamboo sticks was too cute to pass up. Participants have only 2 hours to choose a photo and paint it and this one was about 1 hour 10 minutes.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

5.5x8.5 watercolor and ink (Pigma Micron 01 pen) on new Bienfang sketchbook for mixed media done yesterday. It was time to begin pet portraits again so this pair of cute pugs was first. I have painted several more for a new line through CheckAdvantage that are not available yet. Some new ones to be featured are owls, outdoor scenes, Spring, mixed media birds, kitchen, cardinals, crazy cows, canines in cars, cat capers, and pigeons.
*Check out Pugs HomeHERE
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

11x8.5 watercolor and ink (Pigma Micron 01 pen) on Strathmore art journal for mixed media completed today. For several days I've been working on a still life of items suggesting the rugged outdoors from work gloves, old hurricane lamp, wood, and a plaid woolen textile. Winter will soon be but a memory.Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

5.5x8 ink sketch on Strathmore Visual Journal for mixed media done today. A Sketchbook Skool assignment from Expressing, Sabine Wisman gave us this second homework assignment which was adding text and telling a story. She finds very old photos of people online then sketches them and makes up a story. This Victorian policeman was really this large in the photo I saw so quickly got his likeness using a black Tombow brush pen. Donuts seemed to be the theme and went with his round size perfectly.
Image COPYRIGT 2016 Kay Smith.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

8.5x11 ink sketch on Bienfang sketchbook finished today. This was Friday's homework assignment on Sketchbook Skool in which we were instructed to do an "infographics", similar to illustrated journaling and storyboards. I walked around my studio and began drawing from life using a black Uniball pen. From a tiny mint green antique vase to hanging window fern and on around I came up with enough pots and plants to fill the page.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Monday, February 1, 2016

15x11 watercolor on 140 lb cold press Canson paper of an old Nepalese man decked out in his various colorful garb. I painted him on my birthday a week ago Saturday and first sketched him using Koh-i-Noor Magic multi colored pencil. Photo courtesy Connie of WetCanvas and was featured in that weekend's drawing event. We learned a lot about the culture of Nepal and its amazing people.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Artist's Statement

"Working from dark to light provides me with immediate gratification seeing value comparisons. Whether I'm painting architectural subjects, animals, floral or still life, I am always looking for the darks first. By establishing these values early, I'm better able to judge the values that follow.

Since creating art is a solitary pursuit, I become absorbed and as one with the painting. Initial excitement usually drives me headlong into a sketching mode with or without value studies. Primarily I work from photographs.

I paint because I have to paint; I want to show you what I see. Viewing my works will be a revelation of who I am.